You know what they say about paybacks...

What do these pictures have in common?

I wont publicly mention how long I sucked my fingers out of shear embarrassment but wow...do I hate paybacks.

Notice to all blog readers

I have now offically caught up with my life. For those of you wanting to read back to the beginning you'll have to go to the bottom of this page and then click on older posts to be able to go back to the beginning of my updates. It's a total of 2 pages. For those of you who don't care...look as you wish.
-The Editor

Eeny Meeny Miny Mo

As many of you know our house is on the market and so we've had a bunch of realtors coming through. When they come they're supposed to leave a card so we know they've been here. I just leave the stack of them on my desk so the kids randomly play with them. The other day I come into the living room and Austin has 2 piles of cards. He titled one group "Ones I like" and the other "Ones I don't like". Take a look at this. I thought it was absolutely hilarious. Do you think the groups have anything in common? He apparently likes blondes with soft gentle features. hahaha He's the funniest kid.

Family Night

After everyone left I decided that we needed a little fun time just with our family. We played a game with the kids that I remember playing when I was small. I don't know what it's called but it got a lot of little giggles from the kids. You fill a cup with flour and turn it over and drop a penny on the top of the tower. Everyone has their own knife and you go around in a circle taking turns cutting chunks off the tower. The person to make the penny fall has to go after it with their mouth. It's hilarious. Redden didn't want to get his face dirty so he sat and tried to fetch it with his tongue and all sorts of nasty stuff. Austin was the smart one...he decided to get it done and went right in, smashed his lips down to the cutting board and came right up with it. Redden dug and dug and dug and breathed in flour etc. It was fun to play with the kids. You notice the only person that didn't have to go diving???

Brian and Mallory Stay

Brian and Mallory decided to just spend their entire Christmas/New Year vacation at our house. We were mostly snowed in so there weren't alot of outings, but we did manage to make it to out to Fred Meyer and OMSI and played some mean games of rock band, with smoke and lights. When they were here Mallory founded one of Austins greatest masterpieces. Lifesaves stuck everywhere in the bathroom. Behind the toilet, on the counter, in the sink and mostly everywhere else was in hand towels. I wont lie, he got a little scolding that quickly turned to laughter when he replied with "MOM...I just needed to dry em' off." How matter of fact is that. He put too many in his mouth and decided it wasn't for him. So...he needed to dry them. Little did he know they may never make it out of those darn bathroom towels. He's such a funny kid.

Jessi definately got her turn at being the singer for our rock band tours

The boys had lots of fun with Uncle Brian -too much actually. This little play date turned into more than these pictures are showing.

Just FYI I say crap in this video a few times so if that offends you...don't watch it.

Don't worry Jessi got her chance too

It was so fun to have family here over Christmas and we enjoyed their company. They were the best kind to have...the kind that's willing to sleep in the trailer outside. Thank you guys for coming, I hope it wasn't too boring for you with no children!

Christmas

This Christmas season I feel so blessed to be able to provide for our family after looking at these pictures as so many are without jobs, losing their homes, not eating or just plain struggling to make ends meet. To this we are extremely grateful for Rich and his willingness to take care of our family and also our Heavenly Father who has played a signifact part in where Rich and I are today. We had a fun Christmas this year especially havinge Brian and Mallory and my little sister Natalie here. The kids set a trap for santa with pop cans in front of the fireplace and waited all night to hear him set off the trap. Every year Redden gets more frustrated that they can't catch him. I laughed when he said that because every year instead of running out of their room, Redden has to wake Austin and sit and explain that Santa came and set off the trap before they come running out. We'll see next year if they waiste less time. I truly feel that I am doing a good job at trying to avoid spoiling my kids and giving them everything they want. But I was a little dissappointed this year because my kids aren't that exciteable. I used to scream when seeing my gifts at Christmas and maybe it's just because I have boys, but they never seem that excited. I know they are, they just show it in such a different way than say I would. They loved their Santa gifts and many others from family members. Here's a few pictures of the "Oh so awaited for" day.

A few of the gifts I was really excited about this year were:

I made the boys quilts for their beds using Rich's Tshirts that hold memories for him. they love anything that has to do with him. I was even able to incorporate some shirts that Redden made for him in school. It put them to good use where I guarantee they wouldn't have had any.

I made a a digital scrapbook for my boys called "Oh Happy Day" Full of fun pictures that for sure would never end up in a book

I received a gift from my husband that on many occassions has made me cry (SERIOUSLY). I got a mixer for the first time in my married life. I got a bosch mixer on a steal of a deal and an electric wheat grinder to support my homemade wheat bread habit. I for the last year and a half have been making 100% whole wheat bread by hand. Once I got pregnant and lost the feeling in my arms, I had to start taking my ingredients to a friends house to use her mixer as it caused to much pain to mix it by hand like I was used to. Now that I've had Jessi and the feeling has come back, it doesn't matter because I HAVE A MIXER!!!!! I tell myself all the time that atleast I know how to do it by hand just incase we ever don't have power. It was the experience.

Winter Weather

As we all were eating after the baptism/blessing we turned on the tv to find out what was going on outside. My dad had decided that after lunch he was going to start heading home after only being here for about 12 hours. But to our surpise, they closed almost all freeways in the Portland area so no one could get out. My sister Natalie's flight home was cancelled, my Dad, my mom and my sister couldn't go home because the freeway was closed between our homes. So...to make a long story short, we had a very very long 4 days as 19 of us were stuck in my home.

Can you say "SARDINES"? Anyway, as we were all stuck here, we saw 12" of snow, interestingly enough rain with 30 degree temps turning it to freezing rain, a few more inches of snow and then it packing in like no other. There was 3/4 inch ice covering anything in sight. It took the guys about 45 minutes to chisel out one car. If you've never seen an ice storm here's a picture.

Anyways...I'm thankful for:

Prophets who have instructed us to have food storage (you should have seen the number of Number 10 cans in my recycle bin)

The knowledge of making homemade bread

Having a wheat grinder to be able to make the bread

Family and the opportunity we had to be together and their willingness to travel despite the danger they were in.

It was eventful, stressful, fun, exciting, relaxing, tiring, and a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget even with the bad mixed in. Thank you to everyone who came to support our family in these wonderful times for our children. We love you all and to those of you who couldn't make it, we miss you.

Wild Winter Turns Baptism to Blessing

The weather this winter was something I have never ever witnessed before. In the month of December I caught myself many times standing in front of a window, mouth hanging wide open saying "I can't believe this." I've lived in Utah and always thought it was a bit funny when they cancelled school here over 2 inches of snow. I'm telling you what it's a whole different ball game here when you get rain, then temps for snow, then rain and still freezing weather. It's absolutely unbelievable. They don't have the snow plows to keep up because it rarely happens so everything shuts down. It's sure a sight to see. Jenni drove here with her 3 kids all by herself through the hazardous weather. I was on the phone with her every hour making sure that she was okay. It took alot longer but she made it in plenty of time for the baptism and blessing. My mom flew in on Wednesday to help me get ready for the company I was about to have. Brian and Mallory drove here in a caravan with my Dad, Mary and her girls on Friday getting here very late because the roads we so terrible. We got my Dad's family settled in at a friends 2nd home and got Brian and Mallory all set in the trailer on our RV Pad. Jenni's family stayed inside our house in the boys room and my boys and Jessi slept in Jessi's room. Task accomplished - No one sleeping on airmatresses in my living room. In order to stay sain in such a small home I can't stand to have my living areas in a shamble. Saturday came and we all rushed to get ready to head to the Stake Center. They were worried about being able to get someone there to fill the font but we found someone willing. We made it but had been advised from the Bishop to cut the program and just baptize him and get everyone home. We cancelled all musical numbers and speakers and got to business. As we were waiting for Redden and Rich to get dressed and come out of the dressing room, the councelor in the bishopric said "They've cancelled church for tomorrow Andrea...should we just go ahead with the blessing?". I was willing to go along where I was putting so many people in danger as far as driving is concerned. My friend Megan didn't make it because there weren't enough seats for her whole family in the car that didn't have chains. So her husband and daughter attended. My sister Lindsay couldn't make it up here from Bend because the roads were closed between us. Rich's sister Judi couldn't make it as the roads from the Tri-cities were absolutely scary. Rich's other sister Pam couldn't make the driver either. I made the decision to go ahead with the blessing even though it was a hard one. I had no idea so she was just in regular clothes (no cute white dress because it was hanging in the closet at home - waiting for it's first use). My brother offered to go home and get it many times but I didn't want to keep every one waiting as the weather was getting worse by the minute. They announced that we would be blessing Jessi and Rich had no idea!! I was kind of funny but definately a memory that will be talked about for many years to come. In the end, Redden was baptized and Jessi was blessed on the same day. My Dad and Mary and the girls made it from utah, Jenni , Billy and their 3 kids made it from idaho, My brother and his wife Mallory made it from Utah, the Bangerters were able to dig out from their home and my Mom and Jeff made it there from their hotel in Gresham. We had fabulous lunch afterwords in my home instead of the stake center where it was planned. If you can imagine we had 29 people here eating in my 1700 sq ft home. SCARY! It was fun and everyone seemed to have a good time. These are the only pictures I got from both events given the horrible rush we were in.

Fun Family Pics

Before everyone got here we went outside to get a few family pics in the beautiful winter weather.

Ward Christmas Party

We had a ward Christmas party and some of these pictures are for my extended family. The kids got to go to the church building on Saturday morning and have lots of fun riding on the "Hay Ride", building mangers and baby jesus, eating donuts and hot chocolate, playing with bouncing balls, a reading from "Mrs. Claus" and of course getting to see Santa. Here are some pictures of the events. Grandma Lyn, and Dad, pay attention to the captions.


The kids making mangers and a baby Jesus Jessi's lovin the ward Christmas PartyThis Anne Leptich from my ward being Santa's helper elf making hot cocoa. She was Ray Yamauchi's old High School girl friend.This is Francis "Pond" Westover. Grandma Janice's friend from Good Ole' Grace High School who is currently in my ward at church. She was Mrs. Claus. It's a small world! The Hay Ride